JANUARY. 41 



and it shows how much may be effected by further hybridi- 

 zation among other species. It is a fine acquisition. 



4. SpiRiE^A Reevesiana FLORE PLENo. — Wc dcscribe this 

 on the authority of Mr. Fortune, who discovered it in North- 

 ern China, and sent home many plants to England. Our 

 specimens were too weak to flower the past season, but an- 

 other year we hope to see them in all the beauty accorded 

 to the variety by Mr. Fortune, who says it far surpasses its 

 parent Reevesiana, which already disputes the palm for pre- 

 eminence with S. prunifolia. It will form a most valuable 

 addition to any shrubbery or choice border. 



FLORICULTURAL AND BOTANICAL NOTICES. 



• New Native Rhododendron. — A new variety or species 

 of rhododendron has been discovered on the mountains in 

 Macon Co., N. C, which, in point of beauty and magnifi- 

 cence, " is second only to the Magnolm grandiflora." The 

 Southern Cultivator gives the following notice of it : — 



Some four or five years since, S. McDowell, Esq., redis- 

 covered the species, (said to have been originally found by 

 Frazer,) and for a year or two past has been engaged in 

 propagating them by removing the plants to his garden. The 

 shrub grows to the height of 4 or 5 feet, and is of easy culti- 

 vation ; the foliage is larger and more rich than that of the 

 Pontic varieties with which we have compared it; the pani- 

 cles of flowers, too, are larger and more brilliant in color. Mr. 

 McDowell sent us a box of the flowers in June, which we 

 compared with those of ponticum, which we fortunately then 

 had in bloom, and which were inferior to it in all respects. 

 Its color is bright crimson, approaching to scarlet ; the pani- 

 cles are composed of a large number of flowers, from 20 to 

 30, forming a conical mass, nearly as large as a man's head ; 

 the contrast between these and its dark green foliage is very 

 rich and magnificent, and can only be conceived of by being 

 seen.-— J. Van Buken, August, 1855. 



VOL. XXII. NO. I. 6 



